From the Homefront: Airman 1st Class McAlister serves as security escort in Kyrgyzstan

Airman 1st Class Carolyn McAlister is on a seven-month deployment to the Manas Transit Center, an air base the U.S. Air Force uses in Kyrgyzstan.

It’s been said that girls love a guy in uniform, but it usually doesn’t lead to the girl wanting to wear it.

For Airman 1st Class Carolyn McAlister, a former Jacksonville resident, it did.

“When I saw him in uniform, I thought, wow, that would be amazing to put that on everyday,” she said of her high school sweetheart. “But he didn’t want me to join.”

Undeterred, she used a little subterfuge to accomplish the mission.

“I just woke up one morning and said I was going to the grocery store,” she said. “I went to the recruiter’s office and signed up.”

Though the decision cost her a relationship, she has no regrets, she said.

“I just felt that I wanted to do something that would benefit others, and it gives me a great sense of pride,” she said.

Now her journey with the Air Force has her at Manas Transit Center, an air base the U.S. Air Force uses in Kyrgyzstan.

Mornings can get a little chilly.

“It was minus-16 here this morning,” she said.

Near the Himalayas, the base is located between Afghanistan and China and serves as a major transit point for soldiers coming in and out of Afghanistan.

It provides doctors to stabilize patients coming from Afghanistan as well as a large air field that can accommodate KC-130s and C-17s.

McAlister, is on a seven-month deployment to Manas where she serves as a security escort.

“We provide positive control on the base while local nationals come work on construction sites and other details,” McAlister said.

Almost every U.S. base across the world uses local civilians to perform certain jobs at the base. It serves to lessen loads on military personnel as well as provide employment to locals who might otherwise be out of work.

However, there is always risk involved with allowing non-military personnel on base, and that’s why security escorts like McAlister are needed.

Though currently stationed in Germany, she plans on coming back to Jacksonville when she leaves the Air Force, she said.

“I’m coming back to Jacksonville,” she said. “I loved being there with all my family.”